Is THEM Guilty of Shirk? - Dr. Wesley Muhammad

We are all familiar with the Greek mythologies of the 12 Olympian G-ds residing above the heavens on
Mount Olympus, with Zeus as the Chief G-d or Supreme Being. On occasion, as the G-ds observed life
on earth from above, Zeus or one of the other G-ds would have reason to manifest themselves as a man or
a woman or a cloud, etc. to earthly beings. You would see them sitting on their thrones on Mount
Olympus as giant divine human beings chatting about the affairs of their little toys on earth. This is the
classic Greek religion and sounds closely related to the perception of G-d Dr. Wesley calls us to accept
(minus the other secondary gods).
Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle took a turn away from such superstitious beliefs
in G-ds as men and women on top of Mount Olympus; sitting on their thrones. They ushered in an age of
reason, which, notwithstanding its own problems and their own "religious" speculations, they helped
humans step further away from idolatry. It is the philosophic rational method of inquiry used by
philosophers to whom Al-Ghazzali and Ibn Sina are compared. Perhaps, these men helped Muslims use
reason and logic to resist the belief in a divine man G-d, just as the Greek philosophers moved people
away from the worship of Zeus, Apollo and the other "divine" super human beings.
The Ancient Greeks and Ancient Hindus had concepts of man gods and they were not Semitic people.
Many people in Africa, Asia and Europe had Man god concepts and they are not Semitic peoples. The
worship of man as god is not a Semitic idea, it is a superstitious idea resulting from a time in human
knowledge when we didn't know any better. Humans may have predominantly believed in god this way at
some point in human history, just as we predominantly believed in witchcraft and rain gods at one time.
But, as human knowledge increases our understanding of the Creator and the scriptures should also
increase.
What Dr. Wesley extends to us, however eloquently, is an invitation to return to the worship of creation
rather than Creator and an understanding of the scripture that would lead us back into superstition.
I believe human reason, education, and scientific discovery is responsible for our current monotheistic
concept of G-d than Greek Philosophy or non-black, non-Arab foreign ideas. I believe it was Al-Qur'an,
Prophet Muhammad, and the Muslim Ummah that brought the world out of the dark ages of superstition
and creation worship so that we would study creation properly and be catapulted into the scientific age of
today where many are free from the worship of created things as G-d.
We do still battle with man's desire to see himself or his image as the Creator though. Abraham had to
battle against a man-pharaoh who believed he was the manifestation of god. I had a brother in my Masjid
try to convince me that after the Honorable Elijah Muhammad died, the god came into him and
therefore, I should follow him rather than Imam Mohammed. Even as a young man, I knew better than
this. He told me he had some special powers that he could use with his mind on people. At that point, I
quickly got out of his car (smile).
It was the physicalization of religious knowledge and ideas that has put the religious world to sleep. It is
reading revelation as purely literal text that has locked us out of religious understanding. It is the attempt
to portray physical images as divine; that is, ascribing divinity to things created that has caused people to
believe the stories in scripture as literal truths and turn religion into comedy for the thoughtful.
To be continued...
Mubaashir Uqdah
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